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For years, Jason has been arguing that creating a federal medical marijuana program would bring the United States into better compliance with the three international drug treaties.

In 2020, the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs voted to remove cannabis from Schedule IV of the Single Convention. Cannabis remained in Schedule I, but removing it from Schedule IV was important because it recognized that cannabis has accepted therapeutic uses. The international drug treaties also repeatedly state that countries should promote access to medicine and support scientific research.

Recognizing that marijuana has medical value is only part of the picture. Countries around the world have already created medical marijuana programs that look much like the state programs in the United States. Germany is one of the best examples. It has built a strong medical marijuana system without violating its treaty obligations. Because the treaties clearly allow the medical and scientific use of marijuana, there is no treaty barrier preventing the DEA and FDA from creating pilot programs for state-legal medical marijuana.

Adult-use marijuana is a little more complicated. Switzerland and the Netherlands have both created adult-use scientific pilot programs that operate under the international drug treaties. Although the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB)  has criticized these programs, it has very little power to stop them. The European Union also appears to accept that these pilot programs are consistent with the treaties.

For those reasons, creating scientific pilot programs would likely bring the United States closer to meeting its treaty obligations. The federal government could also begin reporting data from state-legal cannabis programs to the INCB, something it does not currently do. Those reports would give the INCB a more complete picture of how these programs operate and would show that the United States is taking its treaty responsibilities seriously. That is especially important because many countries already believe the United States is not complying with the treaties due to its existing state-legal marijuana programs. 

By bringing state-legal marijuana programs into a scientific pilot program that fits within a framework already accepted by many countries, the United States could better honor its international treaty obligations without eliminating the state markets that already exist.